In this part of the Sahara, next to the border with Algeria, I met this womaon and her son, Wahdi and Lahzit. The ground was hardscrabble with bit of sharp obsidian littering the ground, making a bumpy sharp floor for endless miles. The young boy Lahzit was running around barefoot and sliding on his knees, his skin tough as leather.

Wahdi had been abandoned by her husband a couple of years ago. My driver Farid, himself married to three women, was furious. As conservative as Farid was, I saw the line there which Wahdi’s husband had crossed, breaking the social compact. Yes, you can marry several times but you are completely and totally responsible for your family.

Even more tragically, in some of the pictures below, you can see the low flat shape of the other wife’s home in the horizon where the husband spent his time. In this empty part of the Sahara, there were only two people living there, these two wives within sight of each other.